


Fault Lines - Pilot/Teaser

by DaharMaster



Series: Star Trek: Interregnum [1]
Category: Original Work, Star Trek
Genre: Gen, Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-15 00:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3430730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaharMaster/pseuds/DaharMaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(The first bit of the rough draft of the first episode of a hypothetical ongoing Star Trek series of short stories. Looking for feedback and to see if there's interest.)</p>
<p>Follow the crew of the Boslic Merchant Ship Haranaphi, an unlikely crew of many species (mainly those rather overlooked by most Star Trek works), as they struggle to simply co-exist in the close confines of the freighter, entirely unaware of the impending danger that will upset their entire lives, sending them on a quest to return home and into a battle for survival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fault Lines - Pilot/Teaser

**STARDATE 54951.95**

* * *

 

Navigator Ibrahim Mahfouz, the second mate of the BMS _Haranaphi_ , tiredly tapped his console, repeatedly recalculating the ship’s estimated time of arrival at Trelka V down to the nearest tenth of a second. Seeing any change in the readout at least gave him some hope that the interminable trip would eventually be over, not that that meant very much given as how he had signed on to the Boslic freighter for six years and still had another four to go.

It wasn’t so much the fact that the old ship rarely got above warp four that made the long hauls from Boslic to Cardassian territory so irritating, but the company he was forced to share them with. At that moment a three way argument between the captain, an older Boslic male by the name of Jeetans, the first mate, a fiery Cardassian female named Delak, and the ship’s chief of security the third mate Talam Sha’Mirs, a Rigelian in their transitional phase between male and female, had just entered its second hour, occasionally punctuated by inane interjections from the _Haranaphi_ ’s lone ensign, Bodhlon, a young Pakled male.

Such debates on the bridge were so commonplace that Mahfouz had grown quite adept at tuning them out. They were nearly always about route and schedule decisions which, surprisingly given that he was the ship’s navigator, he was rarely consulted on. Usually they were just between the captain and the first mate, Jeetans wanting to take the most cost efficient route and Delak wanting to take the quickest route, but as they were considering entering the contested Shatoula Sector, Sha’Mirs had joined in, suggesting a third route that entirely bypassed the sector but pleased neither Delak nor Jeetans.

Not for the first time, Mahfouz cursed the damnable Dominion for landing him in that sorry situation. Leading up to and during part of the Dominion War he had been a Starfleet lieutenant in charge of stellar cartography and astrometrics aboard the USS _Yuezhi_. That had been until he was captured by the Dominion and replaced with a Changeling, one of the Founders who had lead the Dominion against the Federation and the entire Alpha Quadrant, sent to gather intelligence.

For years he had toiled in a Dominion prison camp only to find, upon his rescue shortly following the Dominion War, that the Changeling that had replaced him had entirely ruined his reputation, his career, and virtually every aspect of his life. After several failed attempts to start a new life, he had finally ended up hiring himself out to the Boslic Mercantile Association and had thus ended up aboard the _Haranaphi_.

“Mahfouz!” Jeetans barked, bringing him back to reality, blinking in confusion at the captain who made a face, causing his beard to seem to scrunch up on itself.

“Sorry, sir,” Mahfouz muttered.

“The captain wants to know how long it would take to go around the Shatoula Sector,” Delak spat at him. Unwilling to draw the Cardassian’s ire any further, he calculated the route in silence.

“About an extra two weeks, maybe three,” he replied. All eyes then turned to Jeetans who furrowed his rigged brow in thought.

“No,” he sighed, “We go through it. Sha’Mirs, step up security.”

* * *

 

Third Mate Talam Sha’Mirs stalked down the narrow corridors of the lower decks, warily scanning the shadows caused by the ship’s poor lighting. It was not so much that they expected to be ambushed or attacked by some assailant lurking in the shadows so much as that was how they naturally moved and lived, always at the ready, always observing, calculating, preparing.

Sha’Mirs made no sound whatsoever as they walked along the grayish brown decking with an odd almost bow-legged gait that made them seem almost to glide over the surface. They wore their gold and gray hair long in a myriad of braids adorned with feathers and beads. A simple brown tunic and matching trousers tucked into rough hunting boots made up the majority of their attire, although over the tunic they wore a sash of sorts of corded fiber decorated with a dazzling array of beads, badges, teeth, bones, and various trophies as well as their comm badge.

Finally, Sha’Mirs turned a corner and reached their destination; the _Haranaphi_ ’s sickbay. As the doors slid open with a hiss, Doctor Zyem Adarna looked up from the patient she was treating and gave the stoic Rigelian a smirk.

“How’d you know where to find them?” the Bolian asked, turning back to the battered and bloody Nausicaan sitting on the biobed in front of her and waving a dermal regenerator over the patient’s skin. Sha’Mirs said nothing and instead stood near the entrance and simply watched for a long moment, observing as always, their face utterly impassive.

On another biobed near the back of the small sickbay lay a second Nausicaan. Neither seemed to notice Sha’Mirs’ presence, or at least acknowledge it and both were clad only in their small clothes, or what amounted to them by Nausicaan standards, and had hair more unruly than normal. The Rigelian’s keen sense of small picked up the nuanced scent of various pheromones, as well as the acrid scents of Nausicaan sweat and blood.

“I am hopeful that you can do without your rutting for some time,” Sha’Mirs finally said, their voice wet and glottal, “From this point and forward we will have duty shifts around the clock.” At that, the Nausicaan lying on the bed on the far side of the room sat up and Sha’Mirs recognized him as Kierz, the male. Apparently, though Sha’Mirs could not quite grasp why, many others had difficulty telling Kierz and his mate Doun apart.

In truth, Nausicaans would never have been the Third Mate’s first choice for security officers, and in their opinion two officers plus themself were not enough, but over the years they had learned how to use the Nausicaans’ strengths and weaknesses to the advantage of the ship and crew and there existed a sort of respect between Sha’Mirs and the Nausicaans.

“Why?” Kierz grunted, seemingly well recovered from whatever coital injuries he might have incurred.

“We are to be entering a contested sector,” Sha’Mirs explained.

“Should we expect trouble?” Adarna asked, genuine concern in her voice.

“It is doubtful,” Sha’Mirs replied easily.

“I hope you’re right,” Adarna said with a wry grin, “I’ve got work enough between keeping these two patched up and with some of the Pakled engineers.”

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the summary, this is only the first bit of the rough draft of the first episode of a hypothetical ongoing and episodic series of original Star Trek short stories. I'm looking to see if there's any interest and for feedback in general.
> 
> One of my main goals with this series is to develop and explore the cultures of species that are often simply "background" races, namely the Boslics, Pakled, Bolians, Nausicaans, and Rigelians as well as to stray from the usual Star Trek theme of the sort of heroes of the Federation and focus more on lesser individuals outside the Federation. It might be more character centered than other Star Trek works and less "adventuresome".
> 
> That said, the overarching plotline I have for it is, without spoiling too much, that the Haranaphi and her crew suddenly get hurled a few centuries into the future to find the Alpha and Beta Quadrants in virtually a post-apocalyptic state of chaos following a sudden dilithium shortage.
> 
> Not only must they survive the hostile new galaxy they encounter, where nearly all forms of interstellar government are gone and everything has become one big lawless frontier, but they must find out both how they got there and how to get back. Over time they also come to realize that unless they figure out what caused the shortage and a way to prevent it, that even if they do get back, within a few centuries everything they know from their time will collapse and be gone.


End file.
